In an effort to reduce the burst damage of Retribution Paladin, the entire class has been redesigned with the arrival of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. In fact, many of the Ret Paladin abilities you were familiar with have either disappeared or been drastically modified.

The main complaint against Retribution Paladins is that they could use Crusader Strike, Hammer of Justice, Judgment, Divine Storm, Crusader Strike all in succession and deal tons of burst damage. If a player’s health dropped at that point, he could finish them off with a Hammer of Rage and another Judgment, in a Divine Storm and another Cross Strike.

In short, Retribution paladins had too much burst damage. As a result of this, there are some big changes coming up for this class in Cataclysm.

First of all, the Seal of Command and Seal of Blood have been removed. Players now have Seal of Justice and Seal of Righteousness as their primary seals, both of which seem to deal less damage than their predecessors. As an aside, Seal of Justice now has a snare effect, so Retribution paladins at least finally have a legitimate way to slow down their enemies.

Also, now paladins have to generate something called Holy Power, which works the same way as a Rogue’s combo points. Divine Storm and a new ability called Templar’s Verdict consume Holy Power to deal damage. Unfortunately, there aren’t many abilities that produce Holy Power, so players have to go through Crusader Striking to get Holy Power and drop the occasional Templar Verdict.

The Art of War no longer grants Retribution Paladins an instant flash of light. Instead, Retribution paladins get a free instant heal in Word of Glory. However, Word of Glory does not use mana; as you may have guessed, it also requires Holy Power.

Ret Paladins will have to choose between healing (Word of Glory) and their most powerful attack (Templar’s Verdict). Although they have to choose between abilities, Word of Glory is pretty solid. Three Holy Power will become over 6,000 HP restored instantly. Not bad for a free heal!

In general, the changes in Retribution Paladins are a bit tricky. Ret Paladins got a big help on Seal of Justice’s trap effect, and the class as a whole is much more polished now. The class now brings more to the table than just a huge burst of damage.

However, at the same time, he lost that huge burst of damage. That’s what he defined the class and endeared them to PvP groups. Unless Retribution paladins get some sort of Mortal Strike equivalent, I don’t think they’ll be very successful in 2v2 PvP. However, they will still do well in Battlegrounds and 5v5 Arena teams.